Tossing 鱼生 “Yu Sheng” during Chinese New Year on 人日 “Ren Re”

The Seventh day of Chinese New Year (正月初七) is named as 人日 “Ren Ri” or “Ren Re” (in Mandarin) or “Yan Yat” (in Cantonese). Direct translation to English means “Human Day”. According to the elderly, this is the birthday of all the humans as they believe human beings are created on “Ren Ri” or “Ren Re”. Normally the Chinese in Singaporean and Malaysian will toss and eat (鱼生) “Yu Sheng" (in Mandarin) or “Yu Shang” (in Cantonese) on “Ren Ri” (人日) to celebrate the birthday of all the human.  

Yu Sheng before tossing, the bottom left in brown is jelly fish

“Yu Sheng” is also known as “Lo Hei” (捞起), in Cantonese means getting prosperity and rich. Direct translation of “Yu” (鱼) is fish. It has the same pronunciation as (余), meaning “abundance” or “surplus”. There are many definitions for “Shang" (生) and one of it is “live” or “getting rich and prosperity”.Thus, “Yu Sheng" (鱼生) is a dish for CNY which symbolize abundance, prosperity and good luck and usually served as appetizer. It can be consumed at any of the first to fifteenth of Chinese New Year days. Nowadays, some people have even start to consume it during the re-union dinner on Chinese New Year Eve.

Colorful ingredients, look nice and taste good

Some people also named “Yu Sheng” 鱼生as “Seven-color Yu Sheng" (七彩鱼生) due to the nature of its colorful ingredients. The normal ingredients consist of papaya slice, red ginger slice, white ginger slice, golden lemon slice, cucumber slice, grinded ground nuts, grinded sesame seed, dry lime slice, winter melon slice, carrot slice, fried crackers and so forth. These ingredients may be varies and in different colour.  The most important ingredient, I would think is the plum sauce and the fresh fish slice. Some people will also add in seasoned jellyfish. “Yu Sheng” can be found in most of the Chinese Restaurant and nowadays there are pre-packed “Yu Sheng” ingredients which are available in most of the supermarkets in Singapore and Malaysia.  

Pre-packed Yu Sheng bought from supermarket

I personally name it as “Chinese New Year Salad” in my home as it consist lots of vegetables. This is one of my favorite dishes during CNY. Have you start to feel hungry now? I have made this “Yu Sheng” from the pre-packed ingredients and add in fresh carrot slices and seasoned jelly fish but without fresh fish slice.

I use lots of fresh carrot and that is why i named it as "salad"

There are certain steps to follow before can start to consume this colorful and meaning dish. In my family, all the family members need to stand up, holding a pair of chopsticks and need to say out loud for lots of “auspicious wishes” while tossing the “Yu Sheng”. There are also techniques which tossing, it is good to tossing as high as possible as the height reflects the growth of fortunes and prosperity of the diners. Remember to use the biggest place in your house to serve the “Yu Sheng” it  has a very high chance for diners to toss the food out of the plate it is too small. It will be a waste right?

I use a tray so that have a bigger space to toss the Yu Sheng

Have you tried to “Lo Hei” already? If not, please try it next time, it is a great and fun experience. For those who has experience it, I hope this will bring back your memory of the happy moments which tossing “Yu Sheng” with your family and friends. I am so looking forward for the coming Chinese New Year 2012 to toss “Yu Sheng” again!